well… I don't know, maybe the fact that teams aren't usually willing to trade away their best players for what you seem to think is a pile of nothing.

I think I understand now, the leafs should just go out and acquire the Sedins, Ovi, Crosby, maybe the Richards, why not throw in Ryan, Perry, Chara, Pronger, and co. Yeah, now that I see it your way it makes sense, the leafs are stupid fro not doing these things.

Good point about centers. Yes, winning teams have great centers. Only problem with your position is that this is FVCKING COMMON KNOWLEDGE! If this was some big secret, and GMs didn't know how valuable impact top line centers, then perhaps one could easily be acquired. What #1 center is available? What amazing impact player would we get for a few second-liners and prospects?

Try this argument on for size:

Great goaltenders that can win games on their own (especially in the playoffs) are often key for a championship team. Therefore, all the leafs need to do is go out and get a top 3 in the world goalie.

See, it's just that simple, go out and get the best players in the world and you'll win.

It's a damn salary cap world, teams can just pull a NYY and buy everyone they want. This is partly why the RFA and UFA system is in place, to keep talent in organizations. Do you honestly think that Burke didn't try to get an elite center for Kessel to play with in the off-season?

You can't just will the impossible into existence. Which is exactly why teams need to focus on the draft and developing talent. Yeah, I'd like the leafs to win the cup this year too (although you seem to doubt that I do) but realistically the team needs to be developed and starts need to come from within.

Special teams suck, no shit. Why not call for a coaching chance instead of trading away Grabo, MacArthur, and Lupul.

Finally, of the three above mentioned names, what do you we should get for them? You don't seem to like them very much, so I'm curious as to which superstar C you plan on flipping them for.

Except, goaltenders do not need to be great to win championships. Just solid. Chris Osgood and Anti Niemi are evidence of that and has made careers out of it.

A great example is Roberto Luongo. He is a great goalie, except he is not solid enough in the postseason to win a championship. Even with a great team ahead of him, his mediocre play in the playoffs shows how solid play in the postseason can get you a title.

You need centers to win championships, not wingers (Calgary), hell not even a great defensive game (Nashville), not a great goalie (Lundqvist), the two-way game of centers has been the most important.

Going back to NYR as an example, the one-two punch of Richards and Dubinsky is propelling them into contender status. All because they solved that Center issues.

And to your deals, you package. If somehow Stajan was packaged for Phaneuf, you can package to get a more impactful center. That's the key to trading for Burke these days. Your right, their hard to find, but now you might have to give up more then you can chew to get that player.

It was a decent comparison for San Jose. I think the one deciding factor is the defence is a bit better on Washington this year and goaltending. I've always liked Carlson and Alzner.

As a Nashville fan, Vokoun has really never got the credit he deserves. His performance in Florida was very good.

I remember watching the Canucks and Blackhawks series…And Versteeg-Bolland-Ladd just destroung the Sedins. It was actually amazing to see a third-line to do such an effective job shutting down one of the best lines in the league.

I don't care for that Osgood comment at all. He is possibly the most underrated player of all time. He was prone to the odd bad goal early in his career and the stigma really stuck with him. He played with great teams, no question about that, but what about on the Island? Or the Blues.

Chris Osgood fact: He never finished lower than 5th in any conference in his career. The year he went to the Islanders (2001-02) they had finished near the basement for years and years and he carried them into 5th in the East. Then he went to St.Louis and they were fighting for home ice. Back to Detroit and another cup.

Osgood's stigma, and the fact that he had a great team before him resulted in one of the game's great goalies getting no respect. He would stand on his head and it would go unrecognized. Yzerman once said the amazing thing about Osgood is that after he would have a kind of shakey game, he would almost always come back and steal a win the next night.

Haha, I was thinking that same thing earlier. "Everyone's crazy except me! I don't get it?!" Think about that…

But anyways, LeafsNation isn't crazy he just has some issues. We really don't know what they are. Leafy is a different story, he's an old man, I think he's like 50, so he's been through so many rebuilds he's earned the right to be bitter so we cut him some slack. Plus, he usually tends to see both sides of the coin but then just stick to his guns. TheLeafsNation is like 20 and he's already this cynical, so who knows, there's probably some personal shit going on there. So we're gonna cut him some slack too.

haha, I just started reading this "do*****ent" and it started with The Leafs "reality"But then it goes on to say "I would look to move Lombardi and Grabovski…" So its just some guys opinion of moves to be made. So how is this any kind of reality? Its one man's fantasy. The exact opposite of reality. Unless you actually are Brian Burke, this should have started with "My Fantasy: I would look to move Franson, Liles, Lombardi…etc"

i'll go out on a limb and say you mkight be able to grab a guy like marleau.

the sharks have 4 really good centers and a couple have to play wing because of it, thornton,marleau,pavelski and couture. Pavelski and marleau are playing the wing while handzus centers the 3rd line, and with clowe and havlat as the other 2 wingers on the top 2 lines i bet SJ might be thinking of freeing up some cap space.

to SJ Mcarthur,Franson,kadri and a 2nd

to Tor Marleau and Mitchell

would you do it if you were on either side,

i rerally like the mitchell part of the deal to help with your toughness and pk

Okay, I just read a bit more of this "do*****ent" I hate to be a d i ck, but I don't think you realize that in the 2008 playoffs Datsyuk played almost exclusively on the wing on Zetterberg's line. He got the odd shift on forward, but I just find it funny that you use that as an example. That's like saying the Devils won the Cup in 2003 thanks to Elias' great work on center (he played the odd shift there).

More semantics, again I know. The overall point of having strong centres = good team is very true and obvious.